Portable card punch

ABSTRACT

A portable card punch having a horizontal member which carries a vertical member. The horizontal member has a transverse slot in which the vertical member is seated and has a substantially planar surface for carrying a card. The vertical member has a transverse slot adjacent the planar surface of the horizontal member so that the card may pass therethrough. A plurality of vertical grooves extend the full vertical dimension of the vertical member and a manually actuatable perforator rides in a selected one of the grooves. The perforator may be biased away from the horizontal member to disengage the card after the perforation thereof and to prevent movement of the card relative to the horizontal member during the perforation operation. The vertical member may be hinged to pivot to a position adjacent the horizontal member for increased compactness and portability.

United States Patent 1 Sorensen et al.

[ Nov. 20, 1973 PORTABLE CARD PUNCH [73] Assignee: Quintex Corporation, Falls Church,

22 Filed: Aug. 23, 1971 21 App]. No.: 173,924

[52] U.S. Cl 83/143, 83/553, 83/582,

83/635, 83/685 [51] Int. Cl B261 1/16 [58] Field of Search 83/553, 685, 691,

Krueger 269/293 Primary Examiner-J. M. Meister Att0rneyL. Lawton Rogers, 111

[5 7 ABSTRACT A portable card punch having a horizontal member which carries a vertical member. The horizontal member has a transverse slot in which the vertical member is seated and has a substantially planar surface for carrying a card. The vertical member has a transverse slot adjacent the planar surface of the horizontal member so that the card may pass therethrough. A plurality of vertical grooves extend the full vertical dimension of the vertical member and a manually actuatable perforator rides in a selected one of the grooves. The perforator may be biased away from the horizontal member to disengage the card after the perforation thereof and to prevent movement of the card relative to the horizontal member during the perforation operation. The vertical member may be hinged to pivot to a position adjacent the horizontal member for increased compactness and portability.

8 Claims. 8 Drawino Fionm PATENIEDNUY 2 0 ms sum 1 [F 3 I l I l FIG. 2

PORTABLE CARD PUNCH BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The subject invention relates to a card punch and more particularly to a portable and manually actuatable card punch which includes a card supporting horizontal member and a perforator supporting vertical member carried by the horizontal member.

In the use of data retrieving and collating equipment employing apertured cards, it is frequently necessary or desirable to modify an existing card to insert additional data or to replace a single card.

The modification or replacement of a single card is desirably done by the equipment operating personnel- ,and the prior art is replete with portable card punches to serve this purpose. In general, a horizontal member supports the full length of the card and a bridge is provided which carries a manually actuated perforator. The bridge is generally capable of movement in a longitudinal direction,and the perforator is capable of movement along the bridge in a transverse direction. The card is generally held on the horizontal supporting member under the bridge by a spring biased clip at one end thereof. The perforation in the card is thereafter made by depressing one end ofthe perforator through the card.

The prior art portable card punches as above vdescribed have several deficiencies, among which is the bulkiness and weight and the complexity of the mechanism. The complicated mechanism is generally expen' sive and the probability of mechanical failure is increased due to the number of moving parts.

In attempting to reduce the manufacturing and fabrication expense of portable card punches, large machining tolerances may generally be found and the resulting large amount of play in the mechanism reduces accuracy beyond that which can be tolerated for the cards used in modern machine systems. In addition, clamping the card only at one end tends to result in holes that are irregular in size due to the stretching of the card when perforated any substantial distance from the clamp. Finally, it may be difficult and thus time consuming to insert and remove a card since the clamp is in constant engagement with the card.

It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention ot obviate the deficiencies of the prior art and to provide a novel and simple portable card punch which has very few parts.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel portable card punch which is compact and light in weight.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a novel card punch which may be manufactured of inexpensive materials by simple fabrication techniques without sacrificing accuracy.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel portable card punch which provides regularity in the shape and size of the perforations in the cards.

Yet still another object of the present invention is to provide a novel portable card punch which facilitates the rapid inserting and removing of cards.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the claims and from the following detailed description, when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.

THE nRAwrNos FIG. 1 is a pictorial view of one embodiment of the portable card punch of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of a portable card punch of FIG. 1 with a card in place thereon for perforating;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken through lines 3-3 of the card punch and card of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken through lines 4-4 of the card punch and card of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an exploded pictorial view of the card punch of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a pictorial view of a second embodiment of the portable card punch of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a pictorial view of a second embodiment of the perforator of FIGS. 1-6; and,

FIG. 8 is an exploded pictorial view of a third embodiment of the portable card punch of the present invention.

portable THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION With reference to FIGS. 1-5 where like numerical reference designations have been accorded like parts to facilitate an understanding thereof, a first member or horizontal member 10 is provided with a substantially planar upper surface 12 for supporting thereon a card 14 to be perforated. The horizontal member 10 may be provided with upstanding sides 16 to abut and align the card to be perforated and to carry a second or upright member 18 in a generally vertical position. The horizontal member l0,as shown in FIG. 5, has a transverse slot 20 extending downwardly therethrough. The inward facing surfaces 15 of the sides 16 of the horizontal member 10 may be provided with a groove 22 communicating with the slot 20. The slot 20 and the groove 22 may be collectively adapted to receive the vertical member 18 with a portion of the vertical member 18 extending downwardly through the slot 20.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the horizontal member 10 may also be provided with a transverse groove 24. The sides 25 and bottom 27 of the vertical member 18 may be reduced in thickness to provide inset edges 28 which abut th inward facing surface 15 of the sides 16 and the transverse groove 24 on the horizontal member 10 to provide accurate alignment of the vertical member 18 when seated in the slot 20 and grooves 22.

The vertical member 18 may be provided with a substantially planar forward-facing surface 30 which, when the vertical member 18 is properly seated in the slot 20 and grooves 22 of the horizontal member 10, is substantially normal to the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10. The surface 30 may be provided with a plurality of spaced narrow grooves 32 which are substantially normal to the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10 and which extend the full length of the surface 30 of the vertical member 18.

The vertical member 18 may also be provided with a transverse slot 34 extending therethrough which is immediately adjacent the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10, when the vertical member 18 is properly seated in the slot 20 and grooves 22 of the horizontal member 10. The width of the slot 34 in the vertical member 18 is sufficient for the card 14 to extend therethrough.

As shown more clearly in FIG. 1, the grooves 32 of the vertical member 18 are aligned with the forward facing side of the slot 20 of the horizontal member 10 to form a plurality of spaced apertures 36, when the vertical member 18 is properly seated in the slot 20 and grooves 22 of the horizontal member 10. Each of the apertures 36 extends downwardly through the horizontal member and are aligned in a direction transverse of the card 14 on the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10 and axillary and cooperatively with one of the grooves 32 in the upright member 18.

As shown more clearly in FIGS. 3 and 5, a manually actuatable perforating means or perforator 38 is adapted for sliding movement along a selected one of the vertical grooves 32 in the upright member 18. The perforator 38 may be provided with a handle 40 adapted to be easily engaged by the operator of the card punch and has a shaft 42 which includes a cutting surface 44 at one end thereof adapted for perforating the card 14. A curved section 46 of the handle 40 may be adapted to bias the shaft 42 into engagement with the bottom of the selected one of the grooves 32.

In operation, the card 14 may be placed onto the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10 and moved into position thereon for perforating the card in a selected column. The operator of the card punch may then select a particular row of the column selected and place the perforator 38 in the groove 32 corresponding to the selected row. The perforator 38 may then be pushed downwardly in the selected groove 32 to perforate the card 14 and, as shown in FIG. 4, to push the resultant punching 48 downwardly through the aperture 36.

As an example, the card punch of the present invention is illustrated in conjunction with the IBM type computor card. Twelve spaced grooves 32 must be provided in the surface 30,and the upper surface 29 of the upright member 18 may be inscribed with numbers cor responding thereto, i.e., 10, 11, and 0-9. The transverse dimension of the surface 12 between the inwardly facing surfaces of the sides 16 must, of course, match the width of the IBM card,and the size of the cutting surface 44 of the shaft 42 of the perforator 38 must be of an acceptable size.

The use of the card punch may be facilitated by providing means for biasing the perforator 38 into a position away from the surface 12 or the horizontal member 10 and out of contact with the card 14 disposed thereon. The regularity of the hole size and position may also be improved by providing means immediately adjacent the hole to prevent movement of the card 14 during the perforating operation.

With reference to FIG. 6, the shaft 42 of the perforator 38 may be provided with an extension 50 for pressurally engaging the upper surface 51 ofa strip 52 of resilient material during the perforation of a card. The strip 52 of resilient material may be secured to the sides 16 of the horizontal member 10 immediately adjacent the junction of the horizontal member 10 and the vertical member 18. When the strip 52 of resilient material is undeformed, the lower surface 53 is spaced sufficiently from the surface 12 to permit the passage of a card 14 therebetween. The downward movement of the perforator 38 will, however, through engagement of the upper surface 51 of the strip 52 by the extension 50, deform the strip 52 into pressural engagement with the card 14 thereby holding the card in place on the surface 12. Once the downward force applied to the perforator 38 is removed, the resiliency of the strip of resilient material will bias the perforator 38 upwardly to disengage the perforated card.

With reference to FIG. 7 where a second device to provide an upward bias to the perforator 38 and to prevent the movement of the card during the perforation operation is illustrated, the handle 40 of the perforator 38 may be provided with downwardly extending member 53 enclosed in a tubular casing 54. A coil spring (not shown) or other suitable biasing device may be connected between the downwardly extending member 53 of the handle 40 and the tubular casing 54 to downwardly bias the casing relative to the member 53. The lower extremity 55 of the tubular casing 54 may be provided with a material having a non-slip surface 56 if desired.

The movement of the tubular casing 54 is limited relative to the handle 40 so that the non-slip surface 56 will engage the card 14 prior to the cutting surface 44 of the perforator 38. When the downward force applied to the perforator 38 is removed, the spring bias applied to the tubular casing 54 will move the perforator 38 upwardly to disengage the perforated card.

To make the card punch even more compact so that it may fit, e.g. in a shirt or trousers pocket, the vertical member 18 may be made to pivot from a position with the surface 30 of the vertical member 18 substantially normal to the surface 12 of horizontal member 10 to a position where the surface 30 of the vertical member 18 is parallel to the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10. With reference to the embodiment of FIG. 8, each side 58 of the vertical member 18 may be provided with a notch 60 and a tubular member 62 extending therefrom. The grooves 22 in the inwardly facing surfaces 15 of the sides 16 of the horizontal member 10 may be provided with a stop 64 to limit upward movement of the member 62 in the groove 22.

The tubular members 62 then ride in the portion of the grooves 22 below the stops 64 and the sides 58 of the vertical member 18 seats in the part of the grooves 22 above the stops 64. The vertical member 18 may then be moved from a vertical position to a horizontal position by lifting the vertical member 18 upwardly relative to the horizontal member 10 until the tubular members 62 abut the stops 64 at which the vertical member 18 may be pivoted to a horizontal position adjacent the surface 12 of the horizontal member 10.

Both the horizontal and vertical members 10 and 18 may conveniently be machined from a rigid synthetic material such as thermoplastic poly-(methyl methacrylate)-type polymer, more commonly known as a Plexiglass polymer. The perforation 38 is desirably made of a metal having sufficient rigidity to provide the resiliency to retain the perforation in the grooves and to retain a sharp cutting edge.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms from those illustrated and described without departing from the spirit or essential character thereof. The presently disclosed embodiments are therefore, to

be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is: 1. Apparatus for perforating a card at one of a predetermined plurality of locations on the card comprising: a first member having a substantially planar upper surface for supporting the card to be perforated,

said first member having a plurality of spaced apertures extending downwardly therethrough, said apertures being aligned in a direction normal to movement of the card into position on the surface of said first member to be perforated;

a second member carried by said first member, said second member having a substantially planar surface substantially normal to the surface of said first member and having a plurality of parallel grooves on the surface of said second member spaced to cooperate with the apertures in said first member; and

manually actuatable perforating means adapted for sliding movement along a selected one of said grooves through a card supported on the surface of said first member into the aligned oneof said apertures in said first member, said perforating means including means for spring biasing said perforating means into a predetermined position relative. to said second member when slideably engaging one of said grooves to maintain said perforating means within a selected groove.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said biasing means includes an elongated strip of resilient material carried adjacent said second member and said first member; and,

wherein said perforating means includes means for pressurally engaging the upper surface of said strip during the perforation of the card,

the lower surface of said strip when undeformed being spaced from said first surface sufficiently to permit the passage of the card to be perforated, said strip being deformed into pressural engagement with the card by the movement of said perforating means during perforation of the card.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said perforating means includes a downwardly extending member spring biased to engage the card during perforation thereof,thereby resisting movement of the card relative to said first member during the perforation of the card.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said second member is secured to said first member for pivotal movement from a first position with the surface of said second member substantially normal to the surface of said first member to a second position with the surfaces of said first and second members substantially parallel.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said downwardly extending member is provided with a non-slip surface at the lower extremity thereof.

6. Apparatus for perforating a card at one of a predetermined plurality of locations on the card comprising: a first member having a substantially planar upper surface for supporting the card to be perforated, said first member having a transverse slot extending downwardly therethrough; second member carried by said first member and having a portion extending through the slot in said first member, said second member having a substantially planar surface substantially normal to the surface of said first member, said surface having a plurality of spaced narrow grooves substantially normal to said first member, said second member having a transverse slot extending therethrough adjacent the surface of said first member and having a width sufficient for the card to extend therethrough, the grooves of said second member being aligned with the slot of said first member to form a plurality of apertures; manually actuatable perforating means adapted to sliding movement along a selected one of said grooves through the slot in said second member, through a card supported on the surface of said first member into one of a plurality of said apertures, said perforating means including means for spring biasing said perforating means to maintain said perforating means within a selected groove.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 including an elongated strip of resilient material carried adjacent said second member and said first member for biasing said perforating means into a predetermined position relative to said second member when slidably engaging one of said grooves; and,

wherein said perforating means includes means for pressurally engaging the upper surface of said strip during the perforation of the card,

the lower surface of said strip when undeformed being spaced from said first surface sufficiently to permit the passage of the card to be perforated, said strip being deformed into pressural engagement with the card by the movement of said perforating means during perforation of the card.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said second member is secured to said first member for pivotal movement from a first position with the surface of said second member substantially normal to the surface of said first member to a second position with the surfaces of said first and second members substantially parallel. 8 l t I 

1. Apparatus for perforating a card at one of a predetermined plurality of locations on the card comprising: a first member having a substantially planar upper surface for supporting the card to be perforated, said first member having a plurality of spaced apertures extending downwardly therethrough, said apertures being aligned in a direction normal to movement of the card into position on the surface of said first member to be perforated; a second member carried by said first member, said second member having a substantially planar surface substantially normal to the surface of said first member and having a plurality of parallel grooves on the surface of said second member spaced to cooperate with the apertures in said first member; and manually actuatable perforating means adapted for sliding movement along a selected one of said grooves through a card supported on the surface of said first member into the aligned one of said apertures in said first member, said perforating means including means for spring biasing said perforating means into a predetermined position relative to said second member when slideably engaging one of said grooves to maintain said perforating means within a selected groove.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said biasing means includes an eloNgated strip of resilient material carried adjacent said second member and said first member; and, wherein said perforating means includes means for pressurally engaging the upper surface of said strip during the perforation of the card, the lower surface of said strip when undeformed being spaced from said first surface sufficiently to permit the passage of the card to be perforated, said strip being deformed into pressural engagement with the card by the movement of said perforating means during perforation of the card.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said perforating means includes a downwardly extending member spring biased to engage the card during perforation thereof,thereby resisting movement of the card relative to said first member during the perforation of the card.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said second member is secured to said first member for pivotal movement from a first position with the surface of said second member substantially normal to the surface of said first member to a second position with the surfaces of said first and second members substantially parallel.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said downwardly extending member is provided with a non-slip surface at the lower extremity thereof.
 6. Apparatus for perforating a card at one of a predetermined plurality of locations on the card comprising: a first member having a substantially planar upper surface for supporting the card to be perforated, said first member having a transverse slot extending downwardly therethrough; a second member carried by said first member and having a portion extending through the slot in said first member, said second member having a substantially planar surface substantially normal to the surface of said first member, said surface having a plurality of spaced narrow grooves substantially normal to said first member, said second member having a transverse slot extending therethrough adjacent the surface of said first member and having a width sufficient for the card to extend therethrough, the grooves of said second member being aligned with the slot of said first member to form a plurality of apertures; manually actuatable perforating means adapted to sliding movement along a selected one of said grooves through the slot in said second member, through a card supported on the surface of said first member into one of a plurality of said apertures, said perforating means including means for spring biasing said perforating means to maintain said perforating means within a selected groove.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6 including an elongated strip of resilient material carried adjacent said second member and said first member for biasing said perforating means into a predetermined position relative to said second member when slidably engaging one of said grooves; and, wherein said perforating means includes means for pressurally engaging the upper surface of said strip during the perforation of the card, the lower surface of said strip when undeformed being spaced from said first surface sufficiently to permit the passage of the card to be perforated, said strip being deformed into pressural engagement with the card by the movement of said perforating means during perforation of the card.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said second member is secured to said first member for pivotal movement from a first position with the surface of said second member substantially normal to the surface of said first member to a second position with the surfaces of said first and second members substantially parallel. 